To call Junior Boys influential in the modern day resurgence of synthpop would be an understatement. Following their formation in 1999, the electronic duo, made up of Canadians Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus, released their debut album Last Exit in 2004. Taking a stripped down, playfully wonky approach to pop music, the band crafted an album that, alongside Hot Chip’s Coming On Strong, largely informed the landscape of commercial synth music as it progressed through the end of the decade. The following years would see a steady stream of material from them that elaborated on their groovy but distinctly indie vibe, producing 3 solid albums and under-the-radar hits like “Parallel Lines” and “In The Morning”.
Last month, Junior Boys released Big Black Coat, their first record in five years and their most exciting in a decade. Largely eschewing the synthpop trappings on most of their previous albums in favor of Detroit techno, industrial and R&B influence, the record retains much of the charm of Junior Boys’ previous work while also feeling like an absolute breath of fresh air in their discography. A dark but never brooding collection, inspired in part by the barflies that Greenspan would see in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, the album conveys a feeling of emotional distance and coldness without losing its dancey edge. With Greenspan’s strong, evocatively repetitive vocals anchoring the album, Big Black Coat functions both as a washed out portrait of loneliness and fun set of songs ready for late night groove sessions; it all depends on how you approach it.
Junior Boys are hitting Brighton Music Hall tonight and we chatted to Greenspan ahead of the gig. He told us about changing labels, the stress of touring and the influences he’s looking to for future material.
Allston Pudding: This album seemed a lot more rooted in Detroit techno and even industrial than a lot of your previous work. Beyond a long standing interest, what drew you to those influences on this project?
Jeremy Greenspan: Probably a combination of some sense of nostalgia and reaching some milestone feeling of doing things for a decade along with things that were informed by the technical choices we were making in terms of what synthesizers we were using and stuff like that. Certain things that we were using were just leading us in that direction.
AP: Were there any challenges in incorporating those, for lack of a better word, underground elements like those into a more indie/electro vocal style?
JG: We don’t really think about it in terms of incorporation. That’s kind of just what comes out. We have a sound that’s us trying to do something but we don’t really think beyond just going and working on music. Our basic thing is that we don’t really think too much about what it is that we’re going to be doing. We just sort of fool around.
AP: From the almost mantra-like lyric “I am the dirty one” on “You Say That”, I noticed an element of repetition through the album. Was that a conscious stylistic decision going into the album, or more just how the lyrics came out?
JG: There was some degree of consciousness to it. I was obviously conscious of saying the word “baby” all the time and that kind of stuff. I think basically what I wanted to do was write the lyrics really fast and keep everything kind of raw and simple.
In the past I’ve been much more keen on editing our material, both lyrically and musically. Work on a small group of songs that I’m happy with and then really rework them and rework them and rework them. On this album I didn’t do that, which I think is the main distinction between this one and the ones we’ve done previously. Instead of doing that we wrote a large amount of material very quickly, threw out the stuff that we didn’t like and kept the stuff that we did like really raw.
AP: Did that lead to any tough decisions in terms of cutting anything good?
JG: No, because everything we cut wasn’t good! (laughs)
AP: Do you work on lyrical content alongside the melody and loops, or is it something you figure out when you have a more fleshed out track?
JG: It depends. There’s usually some sense of vocal melody and a couple of phrases that might start out at the beginning. On this album the lyrics were written really fast. Oftentimes the lyrics were written the same day that the song was sequenced. Then I just sang ‘em! I didn’t really take my time to set up a bunch of really good microphones or anything like that, I just did them really fast.
AP: Your hometown of Hamilton was a big influence on Big Black Coat. Do you feel like that location shaped the album in a different way than the big cities that electronic music tends to center around?
JG: Yeah I do, but I don’t think that should be that surprising. The place where someone makes music SHOULD influence it. I don’t think that’s something uniquely us. I think all good music reflects the place it was made to some extent, unless it’s really consciously not. Like if a Swedish band made a reggae album or something. I think most music reflects to some extent the place it’s from. I think in dance music that’s often very true, because it’s very urban music.
The city that we’re from is kind of a rust belt city. It has the same feelings as a lot of other rust belt cities where so much dance music is from.
AP: Touching back on the different sound of the record, you said “I’ve made this album, and I don’t really care who likes it or not.” With that attitude in mind, while you were writing was there any thought to have familiar Junior Boys elements, or keep things recognizable to fans or your older material?
JG: No, not really. I should probably preface this by saying I care that people like it, insofar as if people do like it I’m pleased. But I don’t care if people don’t like it.
But no, I didn’t have any notion of keeping things “Junior Boys-ey”, but with the knowledge that I don’t really have the ability to make things sound like anything other than Junior Boys. I have a kind of sound that I can’t really escape. That’s something I’ve learned about myself. I don’t worry too much about not sounding like me, because I know that I can’t.
AP: This is your first album on City Slang. How has your experience with them compared to your many years with Domino?
JG: It’s different with different people. The nice thing about City Slang is that they have that kind of raw enthusiasm that you get working with someone new; they’re super excited and super into doing new things, as opposed to Domino where it was an older relationship. I still have a relationship with Domino- they obviously have all of our old records and they’re my publishing company, so I still work with them. With City Slang it was nice because it felt like starting again.
AP: Since the Junior Boys started making a mark, the role of electronic sounds in the overall musical landscape has changed significantly. Were you surprised by the acceleration of popularity?
JG: Kind of. In some ways it has become more popular and in some ways it has declined. When I was a kid there was this whole rave culture that was happening, especially near where I was from and in Europe, and that sort of fizzled out. There’s a different type of dance music culture now but in some ways it lacks the kind of energy of the stuff when I was a teenager. I feel like the energy of dance music that I grew up with doesn’t exist so much in contemporary dance music. That energy is more in R&B. R&B for me has picked up that sense of creativity and experimentation and forward-thinking attitudes in contemporary music.
AP: Could you tell me about your live setup for this tour?
AG: We have this guy named Dale Butterfield who plays drums, who has a sort of hybrid drum kit that has a bunch of sample drums and live drums. Matt has an array of sequencers and synthesizers that are ported out of the computer so that he can do certain things in real time with a virtual big table of synths. Then I have a keyboard and looping pedals and I sing and play guitar.
AP: In the past you’ve talked about how tiring and disruptive touring can be on your creative process. There were some scattered festival dates in there, but having a longer break from heavy touring since the last run, have you found yourself enjoying it any more?
JG: Well, yeah. In the time out I did a lot of work. I did essentially three albums; two that I did with Jessy Lanza and then the new Junior Boys albums. I see that as a positive- I can’t get that kind of work done if I was touring all the time. For me it’s more important to be getting music out than going and promoting it.
AP: After this album it’s very hard to predict where Junior Boys will go next. Without putting you on the spot about what exactly to expect from future albums, are there any other influences or sounds that you’re interested in exploring?
JG: In the moment I’m interested in, and this will sound a little funny, but a lot of new age synth music. More ambient stuff. I’m working on some material right now that’s highly influenced by that. I’m incorporating that into our kind of sound. So that’s what I’m working on and I think the next thing I release will be in that vein.
Junior Boys play Brighton Music Hall tonight, 4/1, with openers Jessy Lanza and Borys. It’s not an April Fools joke, I promise you. Tickets are still available here.